The Chesterfield Kings
Encyclopedia
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band from Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, who began as a retro-1960s garage band
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
, and who have heavily mined 1960s music, including some borrowing from the 1960s recordings of The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
. Core members are former Distorted Level singer, underground music journalist and avid record collector Greg Prevost, and Andy Babiuk (16 years old at the time of the band's founding); others have come and gone. The band, named after a defunct brand of unfiltered cigarette
Chesterfield (cigarette)
Chesterfield is a brand of cigarette made by Altria. It was one of the most recognized brands of the early 20th century, but sales have declined steadily over the years. It was named for Chesterfield County, Virginia. Chesterfield is still being made today; it is still popular in Europe, but has...
, was instrumental in sparking the 1980s garage band revival that launched such groups as the Unclaimed, Marshmallow Overcoat, The Fuzztones, The Malarians, Mystic Eyes, The Cynics, The Optic Nerve, the Secret Service, and the Stomachmouths.
History
The early Kings were a late-1970s recreation of a mid-1960s garage band sound. Their self-released first singleSingle (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
(Living Eye Records, LSD-1) was a cover of The Brogues
The Brogues
The Brogues was a Merced, California band formed in 1964 by Eddie Rodrigues , Rick Campbell , Greg Elmore and Bill Whittington...
' 1965 "I Ain't No Miracle Worker" b/w The Heard's 1967 "Exit 9". In a deliberate effort to create their own rare garage-band collectible singles, only 500 copies were pressed.
Their first broader public exposure came when a track on Greg Shaw
Greg Shaw
Greg Shaw was a Los Angeles-based fanzine publisher, music historian and record label owner. He grew up near San Francisco, California.It was as a young teenager that he started writing about rock and roll music...
's 1981 Bomp! Records
Bomp! Records
Bomp! Records is an Los Angeles-based indie label formed in 1974 by fanzine publisher and music historian Greg Shaw.-History:The label has featured punk, pop, powerpop, garage rock, new wave, old school rock, neo-psychedelia among other genres, and its roster has included artists such as The Modern...
compilation Battle of the Garage netted them a series of dates at the Peppermint Lounge in New York City. They continued with this 60s garage sound through the mid-1980s, releasing two albums—Here are the Chesterfield Kings (1982) was entirely covers, and Stop! (1985) introduced their first originals—then turned to a harder-edged rock sound for Don't Open Till Doomsday (1987), which Piero Scaruffi describes as "uninspired and confused", and Berlin Wall of Sound (1989), featuring the blues guitar work of new band member Paul Rocco, followed by an acoustic blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
record Drunk On Muddy Water (1990).
Their Let's Go Get Stoned (1994) is a mix of slightly post-Aftermath Stones covers and worthy originals in the Stones' style. Surfin' Rampage (1997) showed that they were fully capable of pop
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
harmonies; Where the Action Is (1999) was a return to garage band roots, a mix of covers and 1960s-styled originals.
The Mindbending Sounds of the Chesterfield Kings (2003) pays tribute to the more baroque side of the 1960s underground, evoking at times the sound of the Electric Prunes
The Electric Prunes
The Electric Prunes are an American rock band who first achieved international attention as an experimental psychedelic group in the late 1960s. Their song "Kyrie Eleison" was featured on the soundtrack of Easy Rider...
("Transparent Life", "Disconnection"), and featuring appearances by Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist, best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.-Biography:...
on two tracks.
The Kings' full-length feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
Where is the Chesterfield King? (2000) is described on their web site as "A comedy/drama in the vein of The Bowery Boys
The Bowery Boys
The Bowery Boys were fictional New York City characters who were the subject of feature films released by Monogram Pictures from 1946 through 1958....
, Batman
Batman (TV series)
Batman is an American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin — two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City. It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to...
, The Monkees Show
The Monkees (TV series)
The Monkees is an American situation comedy that aired on NBC from September 1966 to March 1968. The series follows the adventures of four young men trying to make a name for themselves as rock 'n roll singers. The show introduced a number of innovative new-wave film techniques to series...
, A Hard Day's Night, Hawaiian Eye
Hawaiian Eye
Hawaiian Eye is an American television series that ran from October 1959 to September 1963 on the American Broadcasting Company television network.-Premise:...
, and The Munsters
The Munsters
The Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
, with a little Three Stooges
Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe,...
slapstick to boot…"
In 2004, Babiuk published Beatles Gear, a book which details exactly which guitars, drums, amplifiers and keyboards The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
used throughout their career.
Line up
- Greg Prevost (lead vocals, multi-instrumentalist 1979–current)
- Andy Babiuk (bass, multi-instrumentalist 1979–current)
- Orest Guran (organ, guitar, 1979–1986)
- Richard Cona (lead guitar 1979–c.1987)
- Doug Meech (drummer 1979–c.1988)
- Walt O'Brien (guitar, organ, 1986–1987)
- Paul Rocco (guitar 1990-1995) (Deceased)
- Brett Reynolds (drums 1990-1993)
- Kris Hadlock (drums 1994-1996)
- Jeff Okolowicz (guitar 1995-1999, 2009-current)
- Ted Okolowicz (guitar 1995-1999)
- Paul Morabito (guitar 1999–current)
- Mike Boise (drums, percussion 1996–current)
Albums
- Here are the Chesterfield Kings (1982, Mirror Records MR-9, 14-song LP)
- Stop! (1985, Mirror Records MR-10, 12-song LP; also remastered 14-song LP and cassette MR-10R)
- Don't Open Till Doomsday (1987, Mirror Records MR-12, 14-song LP, 15-song cassette)
- Night of The Living Eyes (1989, Mirror Records MR-13, 14-song LP/CD/cassette); early compilation of early singles and rarities.
- Berlin Wall of Sound (1989, Mirror Records MR-15, 15-song CD/cassette, 14-song LP)
- Drunk On Muddy Water (1990, Mirror Records MCD-16, 13-song limited edition CD)
- Let's Go Get Stoned (1994, Mirror Records MR-19; several sources inaccurately give the title as Let's Get Stoned; 14-song LP, CD, and cassette).
- Surfin' Rampage (1997, Mirror Records M-23, 32-song double LP and CD)
- Trippin' Out (1997, Impossible Records (Spain), 6-song 10-inch disc)
- Where the Action Is (1999, Sundazed LSD 13, 17-song CD)
- The Mindbending Sounds of… (Living Eye / Sundazed, 2003; 14-song CD, 12 song LP)
- The Mindbending Sounds of… (Wicked Cool Records, 2006; 14-song CD)
- Psychedelic Sunrise… (Wicked Cool Records, 2007; 12-song CD)
- Psychedelic Sunrise… (Wicked Cool Records, 2008; 12-song vinyl/16 song CD)
- Live Onstage...If You Want It (Wicked Cool Records; Live LP/CD/DVD)
Singles
- "I Ain't No Miracle Worker" b/w "Exit 9" (1979, Living Eye Records, LSD-1; limited edition 500 copies)
- "You Can't Catch Me" b/w "I Won't Be There" (1981, Living Eye Records, LSD-2; limited edition 50 copies)
- "Hey Little Bird" b/w "I Can Only Give You Everything" (1982, Living Eye Records, LSD-3)
- "I'm Going Home" b/w "A Dark Corner" (1982, Mirror Records)
- "She Told Me Lies" b/w "I've Got a Way With Girls" (1984, Mirror Records)
- "Baby Doll" b/w "I Cannot Find Her (acoustic version)" (1987, Mirror Records)
- "Next One In Line" b/w "Talk Talk" and "You Drive Me Nervous" (1991, Mirror Records, MIR45-4, 7-inch EPExtended playAn EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
) - "Hey Joe" b/w "Roadrunner" (as "The Paisley Zipper Band", 1994, Get Hip Recordings, GH-144)
- "Misty Lane" b/w "Little Girl" (1997, Misty Lane records, Italian fanzine release)
- "Wrong From Right" b/w "So What" (1998, Living Eye Records, LSD-5)
- "Run Rudolph Run" (1998, Living Eye Records, LSD-FC98, fan club Christmas single)
- "Help You Ann" b/w LyresLyres (band)Lyres are a Boston-area garage rock band led by Jeff "Monoman" Conolly. Lyres were founded in 1979 following the breakup of DMZ. Their most popular songs included "Don't Give It Up Now," "What A Girl Can't Do" and "Help You Ann"...
"She Told Me Lies" (1999, Living Eye Records, LSD-6; a split single, with each band covering a song originally by the other) - "She Pays The Rent" b/w LyresLyres (band)Lyres are a Boston-area garage rock band led by Jeff "Monoman" Conolly. Lyres were founded in 1979 following the breakup of DMZ. Their most popular songs included "Don't Give It Up Now," "What A Girl Can't Do" and "Help You Ann"...
"She Told Me Lies" (2000, Feathered Apple Records, FA-1300; a split single, with each band covering a song originally by the other) - "Where Do We Go From Here" b/w "Louis, Go Home" (1999, Living Eye / Sundazed Records S-146; vocals by Mark LindsayMark LindsayMark Lindsay is an American musician, best known as the singer for the group Paul Revere & the Raiders.-Biography:Lindsay was born in Eugene, Oregon and was the second of eight children...
of Paul Revere and the Raiders) - "Yes I Understand" b/w "Sometime At Night" (2001, Sundazed Records; vocals by Sal ValentinoSal ValentinoSal Valentino is an American rock musician, singer and songwriter, best known as lead singer of The Beau Brummels, subsequently becoming a songwriter as well. The band released a pair of top 20 U.S...
of The Beau BrummelsThe Beau BrummelsThe Beau Brummels were an American rock band. Formed in San Francisco in 1964, the band's original lineup included Sal Valentino , Ron Elliott , Ron Meagher , Declan Mulligan , and John Petersen...
)
Bootlegs
- Johnny ThundersJohnny ThundersJohnny Thunders, born John Anthony Genzale, Jr. , was an American protopunk guitarist, singer and songwriter.He came to prominence in the early '70s as a member of the New York Dolls...
and the Chesterfield Kings - Fossils
- Kingsize Rock 'n' Roll
- Long Ago, Far Away (Paisley Zipper Band)
External links
- The Chesterfield Kings Official Web Site
- Where is the Chesterfield King? on Yahoo! Movies.
- The Chesterfield Kings at Rolling StoneRolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
- Chesterfield Kings New Interview)
- YeboTV.com (The Chesterfield Kings Concert)
- YeboTV.com (The Chesterfield Kings Interview)
- Beatles Gear web site